ON SITE: T.J. Watson takes win in Late Model qualifier at Wiscasset Raceway
In the parlance of a fireworks display, T.J. Watson lit the wick and then the explosions started popping off around him.
Watson made a bold, three-wide move under both Daren Ripley and Will Collins with three laps remaining and then held off Late Model points leader Chris Thorne to win a 50-lap qualifying event for the New England Toyota Tundra 250 on Saturday night. In victory lane, Watson passed on the $1,000 winner’s check to take the provisional in Sunday’s main event.
Last place guarantees a purse share of $1,200.
"This is big," Watson said. "We haven’t been running that well the last few weeks. We had a good run in the 250 at Oxford (Plains Speedway last month), and this is the biggest race there is now. Hopefully, we can have a good run in this 250, too."
Watson, who said he didn’t have the best car in the 21-car starting field, benefitted from a wild restart scenario on lap 46.
The pole-sitter Ripley tried to restart the race once – after jumping a pair of restarts last week in a victory over Thorne – but had that one waved off when he left too early. But that move set off a nine-car pileup in turn one, and drew the ire of Mike Orr. Orr and Ripley made contact on the frontstretch as Ripley slowed to speak with track official John Crawford, who was lecturing Ripley on the restart protocol.
Then as they got the race going again, Watson waited for his opportunity, driving under both Ripley and Collins off turn four – and then Ripley and Collins were among those involved in another turn 1 scrape shortly thereafter.
Collins blamed Ripley for taking a win from him.
"We just got run out wide by (Ripley), and then when I tried to get back down I got spun," Collins said. "I just know that I went into turn 3 and 4 and before I knew it I was in the third groove... It happened so quick, I don’t really know what happened.
"I just lost my first win. I’m pretty sure we had it, and I think the 70 car knew it and that’s why he drove the way he did."
Ripley defended himself by saying that he had a flat right front tire, causing him to lose control of his car as Watson was driving to the lead.
"(Orr) accidentally run into the side of me under yellow, and I cut a right front tire down," Ripley said.
Ripley also said that while his competitors are frustrated with the restart scenarios that have involved him over the last two weeks, they deserve some of the blame.
"I think the guys don’t want to run on the outside on these restarts," said Ripley, who ended up out of the race in 11th place. "They want to back out of it and get in line behind me. It makes me look like I’m jumping restarts, which I’m not. They just know we have a fast car, and they don’t want to run out there with us."
Thorne held on for second place, and Ajay Picard collected a career-best third-place finish at the track. Steve Reno, the early race leader, and Collins rounded out the top-5 finishers.
But the event, despite the controversy at the end, belonged to Watson – who pulled off the move of the night with his pass in the low groove in turn 4.
"I knew it was going to be checkers or wreckers for us, or else we were bringing the car back to Dale Shaw," Watson said.
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